Find Your Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) Score

Learn how childhood trauma affects your risk of adult health problems, and what to do to grow your resilience.

Quiz Questions

1.

While you were growing up, during your first 18 years of life, did a parent or other adult in the household often: Swear at you, insult you, put you down, or humiliate you? Or did they act in a way that made you afraid that you might be physically hurt?

Did you often feel that: You didn’t have enough to eat, had to wear dirty clothes, and had no one to protect you? Or that your parents were too drunk or high to take care of you or take you to the doctor if you needed it?

Was your mother or stepmother:
Often pushed, grabbed, slapped, or had something thrown at her? Or sometimes or often kicked, bitten, hit with a fist, or hit with something hard? Or ever repeatedly hit over at least a few minutes or threatened with a gun or knife?

Quiz Outcomes

The questions in the quiz are from the CDC-Kaiser Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study.
The CDC's (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) ACE Study uncovered a concerning link between childhood trauma and chronic diseases, plus social and emotional problems developed later in life. These problems include but are not limited to depression, heart disease, lung cancer, diabetes, and a range of autoimmune diseases. The list also includes acts of violence, being a victim of violence, and suicide.
The study’s researchers came up with the ACE score to explain a person’s level of risk for these problems based on their childhood exposure to chronic stress.
Of course, this particular study (and quiz) is based on the 10 questions you just answered, which are far from an exhaustive list of possible childhood traumas. Therefore, this is not to be taken as a diagnostic tool, rather as a little reminder to take good care of yourself and each other, whether you have experienced some of these 10 ACEs or not.
We are each different and our ACE score is only one indicator for our risk of illness, physical and mental, later in life.
But disclaimers aside, the growing pool of research is drawing a clear link between stress and illness, and it stands to reason that the earlier in life the stress began, the more the exposure could have negatively impacted you.
Where to now?
Everybody can benefit from self love and self care, even those with a low to moderate ACE score. We would like to recommend being kind to yourself, especially if taking this quiz brought up bad memories or big questions for you.
We would also like to recommend incorporating more stress-relief into your life, such as meditation. Even if you have been exposed to stress your entire life, it is never too late to start healing.
Thanks to research into neuroplasticity, we have enough evidence to believe that mediation can improve thought patterns at any age. Starting with the mind, the positive effects of lowering your mental stress can both improve your mental resilience AND help your physical healing too.
Head here to download some free meditation resources and an eBook from Dr. Andrea Pennington.

The questions in the quiz are from the CDC-Kaiser Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study.
The CDC's (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) ACE Study uncovered a concerning link between childhood trauma and chronic diseases, plus social and emotional problems developed later in life.
These problems include but are not limited to depression, heart disease, lung cancer, diabetes, and a range of autoimmune diseases. The list also includes acts of violence, being a victim of violence, and suicide.
The study’s researchers came up with the ACE score to explain a person’s level of risk for these problems based on their childhood exposure to chronic stress.
Of course, this particular study (and quiz) is based on the 10 questions you just answered, which are far from an exhaustive list of possible childhood traumas. Therefore, this is not to be taken as a diagnostic tool, rather as a little reminder to take good care of yourself and each other, whether you have experienced some of these 10 ACEs or not.
We are each different and our ACE score is only one indicator for our risk of illness, physical and mental, later in life.
But disclaimers aside, the growing pool of research is drawing a clear link between stress and illness, and it stands to reason that the earlier in life the stress began, the more the exposure could have negatively impacted you.
Where to now?
Everybody can benefit from self love and self care, even those with a moderate to high ACE score. We would like to recommend being kind to yourself, especially if taking this quiz brought up bad memories or big questions for you.
We would also like to recommend incorporating more stress-relief into your life, such as meditation. Even if you have been exposed to stress your entire life, it is never too late to start healing.
Thanks to research into neuroplasticity, we have enough evidence to believe that mediation can improve thought patterns at any age. Starting with the mind, the positive effects of lowering your mental stress can both improve your mental resilience AND help your physical healing too.
Head here to download some free meditation resources and an eBook from Dr. Andrea Pennington. You can also click the button below to visit the home of the #RealSelfLove movement, for much more from Dr. Andrea and her Real Self Love tribe.